1. Technical field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a relief printing plate and a printing plate precursor for laser engraving, which is used for the manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for forming a printing plate by forming a concave-convex structure on a photosensitive resin layer laminated on the surface of a support, a method of exposing a relief forming layer which has been formed using a photosensitive composition, to ultraviolet radiation through an original image film so as to selectively cure image areas, and removing uncured parts by means of a developer solution, that is, so-called “analogue plate making”, is well known.
A relief printing plate is a letterpress printing plate having a relief layer with a concave-convex structure, and such a relief layer having a concave-convex structure may be obtained by patterning a relief forming layer formed from a photosensitive composition containing, as a main component, for example, an elastomeric polymer such as synthetic rubber, a resin such as a thermoplastic resin, or a mixture of a resin and a plasticizer, to thus form a concave-convex structure. Among such relief printing plates, a printing plate having a flexible relief layer is often referred to as a flexo plate.
In the case of producing a relief printing plate by analogue plate making, since an original image film using a silver salt material is needed in general, the plate making process requires time and costs for the production of original image films. Furthermore, since chemical treatments are required in the development of original image films, and also treatments of development waste water are necessary, investigations on simpler methods of plate making, for example, methods which do not use original image films or methods which do not necessitate development treatments, are being undertaken.